At 13.20 GMT a fire started at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Chelsea, London. It has destroyed much of the roof and swept through a large part of the hospital. Over 100 firefighters are fighting the blaze. So far, one patient and two firefighters are reported to have suffered smoke inhalation. A hospital spokesman says the whole hospital has been successfully evacuated. [click link for full article]

Such body abnormalities as curvature of the spine and asymmetric lower limbs are more prevalent among children with cancer, compared to children without cancer. This suggests that a defective gene which is responsible for the abnormality may also have a role to play in cancer development, says an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). [click link for full article]

White patients in emergency department visits are more likely to receive opioids, powerful painkillers, than patients who are not white, according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). This is despite the fact that the use of opioids to treat pain-related emergency department visits has improved over the last 15 years. During the 1990s there was a national focus on the problem of inadequately treated pain, the authors explain. [click link for full article]

A Synovate study found that the British are the keenest fast food consumers in the world, closely followed by Americans. When asked to comment on the statement “I like the taste of fast food too much to give it up,” 45% of the British agreed, compared to 44% of Americans - Canada came third with 37%. At the other end of the scale 81% of the French disagreed with the statement, followed by 75% of people from Singapore. [click link for full article]

A particular gene variation appears to significantly increase the risk that individuals with cirrhosis of the liver will go on to develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a liver tumor that is the third leading cause of cancer death. [click link for full article]

A study published in the January 1 issue of the journal SLEEP finds that people with untreated obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have altered cardiovascular responses during recovery from maximal exercise. These results suggest an imbalance in the autonomic control of heart rate during recovery, and may be an early clinical sign of the progression of OSA.The study, authored by Trent A. [click link for full article]

That’s the suggestion from a new UCLA study that tracked levels of cortisol, a key stress hormone, among 30 Los Angeles married couples involved in one of our age’s trickiest juggling acts - raising kids when both parents work full time.”At least as far as women are concerned, being happily married appears to bolster physiological recovery from work,” said Darby E. Saxbe, the study’s lead author and a UCLA graduate student in clinical psychology. [click link for full article]

Despite increases in the overall use of opioid drugs to relieve severe pain, black and Hispanic patients remain significantly less likely than whites to receive these pain-relievers in emergency rooms, according to a new national study.The study examined treatments for more than 150,000 pain-related visits to U.S. hospitals between 1993 and 2005. It found that 31 percent of whites received opioid drugs compared with only 23 percent of blacks and 24 percent of Hispanics. [click link for full article]

The duration of a child’s sleep can vary, depending on the time of day, week and year. Further, children who don’t get enough nightly sleep are more likely to be overweight and have behavioral problems, according to a study published in the January 1 issue of the journal SLEEP. [click link for full article]

Bad dreams in pre-schoolers are less prevalent than thought. However, when they do exist, nightmares are trait-like in nature and associated with personality characteristics measured as early as five months, according to a study published in the January 1 issue of the journal SLEEP. [click link for full article]